Knitting machine and method



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ROBERT H. BY

March 27, 1934.

R. H. LAWSON 1,952,928

KNITTING MACHINE AND METHOD Filed Dec, 21. 1.929 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 r 2) Q l.

INVENTORZ R0 BERTHLAWSON, BY 690. 1,. M

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Patented Mar. 27, 1934 KNITTING MACHINE AND METHOD Robert H. Lawson, Pawtucket, It. I., assignor to Hemphill Company, Central Falls, It. I., a corporation of Massachusetts Application December 21, 1929, Serial No. 415,858

2 Claims.

This invention relates to knitting machines of the type having needles independently movable to and from yarn taking positions. The present invention although disclosed as applied to a circular knitting machine is not necessarily and in all respects so limited. Furthermore, although shown as applied to a so-called body machine having a plurality of feeding stations the principle of the invention is equally well adapted to be used in connection with a hosiery knitting machine.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view in section showing a needle and an adjacent sinker drawing a stitch;

Fig. 2 is a detail view of the sinker raising cam;

Fig. 3 is a view, greatly enlarged, showing successive positions assumed by the needles and adjacent sinkers during the drawing of the stitches;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary plan view partly in section, of the means for controlling and guiding the sinkers, one such sinker and the'butts of all of the sinkers being shown;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5, Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a view of the cams for controlling the needles in their movements to and from thread taking position, the arrow representing the direction of movement of the needles with relation to the cams;

Fig. '7 is a detail view in section, taken along the line 77, Fig. 6, showing the means employed for adjusting the length of stitch;

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line 88, Fig. 7;

Fig. 9 is a view in section showing a modified form of sinker; and

Fig. 10 is a view of a sectional stitch ring.

The relatively fixed parts of the machine include a cylinder 1 fast to a bracket 2 carried by a circular base 3. A needle cylinder 4, grooved to receive therein needles 5, is mounted upon and carried by a ring gear plate 6 having a spur gear 7 driven by other gearing (not shown). The circular base 3 is recessed as at 8 to provide a suitable bearing for the relatively rotating ring gear 6. Seated within a second recess 9 in the said circular base and above the first recess is a cam ring 10, connected to the circular base 3, surmounting the ring gear 6 and serving to provide an additional bearing therefor. Adjacent to the needle cylinder 4,the cam ring 10 is provided with an upright extension or flange 11 which carries draw cams l2, stitch cams 13 and additional guide cams 14, and 15. The cam ring 10 has connected thereto, at intervals, upright posts or mounted upon and connected to the ring 17.

Sinker actuating cams 19 and 20 attached to the ring 18 radially advance and retract sinkers 21 slidably mounted in tricks or grooves 22 cut in a sinker head 23; the sinkers 21 adjacent to the needle cylinder being guided in their radial movements by removable walls 24 which take the place of the stitch ring commonly used in hosiery machines of the type disclosed in the patent to Hemphill, 933,443, Sept. '7, 1909.

Knitting machines provided with a plurality of feeding stations to knit a plurality of courses during each rotation of the cam or needle cylinder are provided with means to adjust the stitch cams at each of the feeds so that a uniform stitch may be knit throughout at the several feeds. Such a 7 cam adjusting means is specifically disclosed in Figs. 6, 7, and 8 wherein a draw cam 12 and stitch cam 13 are shown connected to a post 25, the cam 12 being connected thereto as by screws 26, and

the cam 13 by screws 27. Attached to and projecting from the post 25 are studs 28 and 29, received within and projecting beyond the respective elongated slots 30 and 31 provided in a ring or plate 32 attached to and forming apart of extension 11 of the cam ring 10. An eccentric 33 is 85 carried by a hollow shank 34 the other end of which carries a knurled head 35, the eccentric when turned by means of head 35 being adapted to raise or lower the post 25 and consequently the cams 12 and 13 by engaging the projecting portions of the studs 28 and 29. To lock the eccentric in an adjusted position a knurled headed set screw 36, passing axially through the shank 34 and head 35 and into threaded engagement with the ring 32,

is provided with a hub 37 which engages with the outer face of the head 35 thereby preventing the latter from turning and changing the setting of the cam 12, and 13. In order to adjust the length of stitch, the locking screw 36 is turned to release its hub 37 from engagement with the head 35 and no the head 35 is then turned in one direction or the other, either to draw a shorter stitch ora longer stitch as may be required. When properly adjusted the head 36 is again turned until its hub 37 engages the outer face of the head 35 to prevent the latter from turning. At 38, Fig. 8, indications are cut in or marked on the surface of the ring 32 and by means of an indentation or marking 39 on the stud 28 the cams 12 and 13 may be set and ma ntained in a desired adjusted position. In no order that the sinker head 23 and sinkers carried thereby will rotate in time with the needle cylinder, the sinker head 23 is fastened to a ring 40 provided with internal teeth 41 in mesh with the tricks or grooves of the needle cylinder 4, whereby rotary movements of the needle cylinder will be communicated to the sinker head 23 by the ring 40. A recess or cut-out 42 in the ring 17 provides a horizontal bearing 43 for the ring 40, the vertical wall 44 constituting a thrust bearing for the ring 40 and attached sinker head 23.

The sinkers 21 are provided with the usual butts 21' engaged and actuated by the sinker cams 19, and 20, the cam 19 being adapted to retract the sinkers and the cam 20 to project them. After retraction of each of the sinkers by the cam 19, the cam 45 of the cam plate 46 carried by and forming part of the cylinder 1 enters within the throat of each sinker and thereafter upon continued rotation of the needles and sinkers the cam 47 successively engages and raises each sinker as the needles are successively engaged and depressed by the draw cam 12. In Fig. 3 the needles and companion sinkers are shown in their successive relative positions as they draw the stitches. The thread 48 fed to the needles from a position thereabove assumes a position inclined to the horizontal until taken by the needles at about the position A. The needles at the position A have the thread 48 in their hooks, while the adjacent sinkers at A just touch the thread. Immediately thereafter in the knitting cycle the needles at B are fully lowered and the sinkers immediately in advance thereof at B are fully raised, the stitches being completely drawn or measured as the sinkers successively move from position A to position B and the needles from position A to position B. The needles at position C, in advance of position B, are partly raised, while the needles at D are fully raised, and the adjacent sinkers at C and D are substantially at the highest point of elevation. When the sinkers successively reach position C a cam 20' of the cam plate 20 engages the sinker butts 21 and advances the sinkers thereby causing them to knock the old stitches over the tops of the needles, the needles at such times being slightly raised as at C to relieve the stitches and permit the sinkers to knock over the old stitches.

In Figs. 3 and 6 the stitch drawing cam 12 is shown as being provided with a flat portion 12' at the lowest point of the cam. The said flat portion 12 is of such a length that, throughout the knitting of a fabric, more than one needle (two being herein shown) ride along the fiat portion of the said cam 12, the two needles being at the level or position B, Fig. 3; while a needle at the position C, which needle has just-passed the said fiat portion 12, rides up the incline of the cam 13 in which position the stitches are relieved to a sufficient extent to permit sinkers, when they reach the posi* tion C, to knock the stitches over such needles at position C. Thereafter in the knitting cycle the needles are further raised by the cam. '13 until they reach the highest point of elevation as at D.

By dividing the stitch drawing between the sinkers and needles, in the manner described it is not necessary to move the needles, as they cooperate with the sinkers in drawing the stitch, at a 45 degree angle such as usual in Banner and similar knitting machines. As shown in Fig. 6 the needle butts, as the needles are moved in the direction of the arrow by the rotation of the needle cylinder, engage with and are depressed by the leading surface or edge of the cam 12 and are thereby depressed to their lowermost, stitch forming positions. The said leading surface or edge of the cam 12 makes an angle of about 35 degrees, more or less, with the horizontal, Fig. 6. The depression of the needles by the said cam permits a greater speed of rotation of the needle cylinder than would be practicable if the leading edge or surface of the cam were arranged at an angle of 45 degrees with the horizontal.

At each feed station the cams 12, 13, 14, and 15 are duplicated, a complete cam block or section being shown in Figs. 6, as well as other cams 12, and 13 pertaining to an adjacent feed station. As aforesaid each stitch is completely drawn and the stitch length thereby determined between the two needle positions A and B and between the two sinker positions A and B. Furthermore the stitch drawing is mainly due to the raising of each sinker by the incline or cam 47 of cam plate 46, the needles playing a relatively small part in the drawing of the stitches. v

Referring to Fig. 3 it will be noted that more than one sinker remains at substantially the highest, stitch drawing level thereby preventing robbing by the needles, as they successively arrive at position 13, from the needles immediately in advance thereof at C.

Immediately after the sinkers have been raised by the cam 4'? they are engaged by the fabric and a cam 49 on the cam plate 46 and gradually returned to their original level, the cam 49 being inclined at a slight angle with the horizontal as compared with the sinker raising cam 4'7.

The walls 24 which constitute the upper portion of the needle cylinder and serve to guide the sinkers are frictionally and removably seated Within tricks or grooves 4 cut in the upper edge of the needle cylinder and may be further retained in position as by solder at 50, the walls being bevelled at 51 to receive the solder. The upper edges 24' of the walls serve to keep the fabric above and out of the way of the cam plate 46 and constitute the upper verge of the needle cylinder.

Each wall 24 is, preferably, entirely disconnected from adjacent walls, though the walls may be formed as parts of a solid stitch ring, or as shown in Fig. 10, two or more adjacent walls 52 may be connected by extensions thereof, as at 53, each series of connected walls constituting, in effect, sections 54 of a sectional stitch ring, each section of which may be connected to the needle cylinder by frictional engagement of portions of adjacent walls 52 defining slots 55 with the walls between corresponding slots 4' in the upper edge of the needle cylinder and if desired, the sections 54 may be soldered or otherwise additionally connected to the needle cylinder 4.

Removable needle walls shown in 56, Fig. 1, serve to guide the needles in their movements to and from thread taking positions but are not, of themselves, an essential part of the present invention.

In Fig. 9 is shown a modified form of sinker 57 provided with an inclined edge 58, constituting a portion of the upper edge of the sinker throat 59, As the sinkers 5'7 move forward the inclined edges 58 thereof engage the cam 60, the sinkers thereby riding up the said cam 60 and at a period in the knitting cycle corresponding to that of the cam 47 of the first described form. After the stitch length has been determined by the raising of the sinkers, a cam corresponding to cam 49 of the first described form, engages the lower edges 61 of the throats of the sinkers and causes the sinkers to drop to their first level.

2. A needle cylinder the upper portion of which is transversely grooved, walls being individually seated in the notches and being individually removable therefrom, the said walls being adapted to serve as guides for sinkers, the walls having projecting portions depending within the needle cylinder and in engagement with the inner surface thereof.

ROBERT H. LAWSON. 

